trying out kubuntu, want to trim some fat

[Jesse Haubrich]

I believe there is a performance slider in kcontrol to easily do just
that. Though I don't see it. When I have had hardware restrictions I've
opted for gnome. (now I find gnome running on my P4 ;)

I know this is flame bait, but...

It's my understanding that the very nature of KDE to be heavy on the
resources. I believe his can be attributed it its use of C++, an object
orientated language.  The KDE boys will tell you, however, that once the
binding of its data structures are done (reads: loading the
application), that it is just as responsive as it's C counterpart. Still
memory hungry, but just as fast.

I'm not ripping on KDE for it's use of C++. I think it was a brilliant
choice to build a community project around C++, and I'm sure it has
greatly contributed to KDE's success. 

I was attracted to ubuntu because I was looking for a high quality Gnome
distro. Gnome, to me, seems to better embrace the UNIX culture as
defined by ESR in "The Art of Programming UNIX". I like that.

KDE, in contrast, is an engineering community. They're so friendly! I
bet most have attended corporate sponsored sensitivity training and
communication skill-set seminars. I stay subscribed to the KDE-Quality
listserv because I love to watch how they handle even the most
belligerent and intolerable newbies. What a great place!

Ok, I'm done. Sorry I didn't answer your question :P